Traffic stopped again on the 405, work stopped at the ports and Angelenos stopped to gawk at the space shuttle rolling through local neighborhoods.

But the local economy and housing market started showing signs of life again, the race to become next mayor of Los Angeles started up, and a new era started in the county District Attorney's Office.

It was also a year when the schools were plagued with sex-abuse scandals, the county assessor was thrown in jail, most of the San Fernando City Council was kicked out of office and a Los Angeles councilman continued to face trial for perjury and voter fraud.

John Noguez

There was still plenty to celebrate this year: lower crime rates, a recovering economy and national academic titles won by local schools.

In all, a mixed bag, but one that held out promise for 2013 as a time for renewal. Here's a look at the highlights of 2012 for Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley:

Scandal and corruption

Nearly every year it seems, local politicians shock and outrage the public with incidents of malfeasance and corruption.

Arguably leading the ignoble pack this year was Los Angeles County Assessor John Noguez, who was charged with accepting at least $185,000 in bribes and campaign contributions from a tax agent whose clients sought to lower the property taxes on their multimillion- dollar homes and businesses.

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcón, who has held various offices in the Valley for two decades, and his wife continued to face felony charges that they lived outside his council district and lied about their residence on official documents. A judge dismissed the case in May because of evidentiary concerns, but District Attorney Steve Cooley immediately refiled and it remains pending.

Alarcón will find himself out of public office for the first time since 1993 after voters elected Raul Bocanegra to the Northeast Valley's 39th district Assembly seat.

The councilman's daughter, Andrea Alarcón, who serves as president of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works, faced her own investigation when her 11-year-old daughter was found wandering around City Hall at midnight on Nov. 16 while her mother was partying with friends at a nearby hotel. Charges have not been filed against her, though she has taken a leave of absence to seek treatment for an unspecified condition.

And the city of San Fernando may be tiny in size compared to its neighbor, but its ongoing political telenovela certainly seemed to dwarf Los Angeles in terms of its sheer scope and salaciousness.

Council members Mario Hernandez and Maribel de la Torre, who had already disclosed they were having an affair, accused each other of domestic assault following a June 28 argument over an iPad. When the case against de la Torre went to trial, Hernandez refused to appear in court - despite an arrest warrant issued by the judge - and the case was dismissed.

Still, de la Torre, Mayor Brenda Esqueda and Hernandez - who resigned his seat in July - were kicked out of office by voters in November, the second such recall in the city in four years. San Fernando has faced a series of other scandals in recent years, including the disclosure of an affair between a former police chief and a cadet who was later fired.

Candles line the sidewalk in front of the home of Francisco Rodriguez, Jr. Rodriguez was gunned down Wednesday evening in the spot after returning home from a soccer match. Rodriguez was a goalie for El Camino Real High. (David Crane / Staff Photographer)

And, though she doesn't hold public office, Burbank campaign treasurer Kindee Durkee's malfeasance affected dozens of politicians and groups throughout California. In March, she pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $7 million from the accounts of Democratic politicians like Sen. Dianne Feinstein and political consultants like John Shallman, who estimated his personal loss at $1 million.

City Hall

For the city of Los Angeles, 2012 was the year that Sacramento-style hardball politics came to City Hall.

It was a year of political gamesmanship and infighting as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa hit the campaign trail on behalf of President Barack Obama, chaired the Democratic National Convention and traveled to Washington in his role as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and to lobby for federal transportation funds.

With Councilman Herb Wesson taking over the presidency from Councilman Eric Garcetti as he ran for mayor, there was a palpable change in how decisions were made and pushed through the 15-member body.

That there were some internal disputes became obvious when the two other African- American members of the council - Bernard Parks and Jan Perry - opposed Wesson's selection as council president, for which they would pay a price.

Parks was punished by losing the chairmanship of the Budget and Finance Committee, and Perry - who is running for mayor - lost control of the Energy and Environment Committee. Both also lost out in the redistricting battle when a committee led by a Wesson aide drew new City Council lines that had been opposed by Parks and Perry.

Other city developments included efforts to create a new tier of pensions for city workers hired after July 1, 2013, over the objections of city unions; a delay in plans to privatize the Los Angeles Zoo, with the support of the unions and, most recently, putting a half-percent sales tax increase measure on the March 5 ballot while scuttling a proposed increase in parking taxes and the documentary transfer tax.

There are now five council members with Sacramento experience: Wesson, Richard Alarcón, Tony Cardenas, Paul Koretz and Paul Krekorian. Cardenas is leaving with his election to Congress, but there are several other state politicians running for open City Council seats in March.

With Villaraigosa's second term ending, Garcetti, Controller Wendy Greuel, Councilwoman Jan Perry and former radio talk show host and prosecutor Kevin James are considered the top contenders in the March 5 mayoral election. If no candidate gets a majority, the top two finishers will face off in a May 21 runoff.

November election

The November presidential election had plenty of repercussions at the local level.

Longtime Valley Congressman Howard Berman was pushed out of office after a brutal campaign against his former ally Brad Sherman, when the two were pitted against each other in the redistricting process. The battle turned nasty at times, best exemplified by a debate in which Sherman threw his arm roughly around Berman and appeared to be challenging him to a fight.

The election also shocked the Valley-based porn industry, which under Measure B will now be forced to use condoms when shooting productions in Los Angeles. The industry has threatened to try to overturn the law or take its multibillion-dollar business elsewhere.

Voters failed to pass Measure J, which would have extended a half-percent sales tax for transportation projects for an additional 30 years. Despite the Noguez scandal, voters also turned down Measure A, which recommended the office of county assessor be appointed, not elected.

LAUSD

Los Angeles Unified was rocked in 2012 by a series of sex-abuse scandals that overshadowed the school district's efforts to strengthen academics and cope with a crippling budget crisis.

The public was shocked when former Miramonte Elementary teacher Mark Berndt was arrested in late January on charges of spoon-feeding his semen to 23 students. The district had fired Berndt more than a year earlier - and paid him $40,000 to drop an appeal - but didn't tell parents about the allegations.

Just days later, Miramonte teacher Martin Springer was arrested on charges of fondling three girls.

Concerns escalated a few weeks later, when the Daily News reported that Paul Chapel, a third-grade teacher at Telfair Elementary in Pacoima, had been arrested four months earlier for abusing four students. Chapel later pleaded no contest to molesting 13 youngsters and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Three of his victims have sued Chapel and the district.

Berndt, meanwhile, remains jailed on $23 million bail. Nearly 200 legal claims have been filed against LAUSD. District lawyers hope to settle them in early 2013.

The cases prompted a new policy that parents be told within 72 hours about sex abuse allegations. The district also ramped up suspensions and firings of abusive teachers and undertook an exhaustive review of 40 years of district files for previous allegations that may have been mishandled.

A different sort of scandal erupted in the spring, when LAUSD announced it had agreed to pay $200,000 plus lifetime health benefits to Scot Graham, a midlevel district executive who had accused retired Superintendent Ramon Cortines of sexual harassment.

The legal settlement fell apart when Graham said the district had improperly disclosed his identity to reporters. Graham also disputed Cortines' claim that the two had engaged in consensual sex.

Graham subsequently filed suit against Cortines, whose defense is being funded by Los Angeles Unified. The district itself has not been sued.

LAUSD grappled again this year with a budget crisis, with officials proposing to eliminate adult and early education programs, along with elementary arts and music classes, to help close a $500 million deficit.

Still, the district escalated its efforts to prepare students for college or a job with the requirement that they pass rigorous college-prep classes in order to graduate.

This year's freshmen had to enroll in advanced classes such as algebra, physics and foreign language, and must earn at least a "D" to pass. Beginning next fall, the passing grade will be raised to a "C."

Additional curriculum changes are on the horizon, with national academic standards known as the Common Core taking effect in fall 2014. District officials are gearing up for the change and looking for ways to provide all 600,000 students with a computer tablet they say will be needed for the new high-tech lessons.

While the sex scandals and budget woes plagued the district, individual achievements by local schools added to its prestige. Granada Hills Charter High School won the national Academic Decathlon, continuing a tradition of dominance by Valley schools. The El Camino Real Robotics Team won the Vex U.S. National Robotics Championship in Omaha, Neb. And North Hollywood High's gifted magnet school took second place out of 69 teams in the U.S. Department of Energy's 22nd annual National Science Bowl in Washington.

L.A. County

County government this year faced allegations of brutal treatment of inmates in the jails and the bribery charges against Assessor John Noguez. But it also saw the election of Jackie Lacey as the county's first African-American and first female district attorney.

Sheriff Lee Baca initially downplayed the extent of abuse attributed to his deputies but eventually embraced dozens of reforms recommended by a blue-ribbon committee.

Lacey's election broke a 162-year-old glass ceiling in the DA's Office. She said she was deeply moved that voters chose her to lead the nation's largest prosecutorial office.

Among her many challenges is realignment, which forced county agencies like hers to take on responsibilities previously held by state agencies, including jailing and supervising the probation of purportedly low-level felons.

Realignment has filled local jails almost to capacity, prompting the Sheriff's Department to consider sending some inmates to jails in Kern County, a commute of more than 100 miles.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority once again experienced success with Carmageddon II, closing the 405 Freeway over a weekend for a bridge upgrade without causing traffic nightmares. It also completed the Orange Line busway extension ahead of schedule and under budget.

Crime

By many measures, the San Fernando Valley was a safer place in 2012.

Violent crime is down more than 11 percent in the L.A. portion of the Valley, and property crime is down 1.3 percent.

Rapes, robberies, shootings, burglaries and aggravated assaults are all down.

But homicides in the Valley are up by 29 percent, Los Angeles Police Department statistics show. There were 62 homicides in the LAPD's Valley Bureau through Dec. 22. There were 48 at the same point in 2011.

The most gruesome of those slayings came near the end of the year. On Dec. 2, four people were found shot dead in the yard of a Northridge home described as an illegal boarding house.

A 31-year-old man with a lengthy criminal record, Ka Pasasouk, was arrested in the slayings, along with three people accused of being accessories after the fact. None has yet been formally charged.

Barely a week into the new year, a 17-year-old El Camino Real High School student was shot and killed outside his Winnetka home. Police said the killing of Francisco "Pancho" Rodriguez stemmed from his relationship with Elizabeth Ibarra, a woman he met at a party. Ibarra and her boyfriend, Jason Schumann, were arrested in the case. Schumann, 25, remains in jail, and the case is still pending. Ibarra, 20, was not charged in the killing and is scheduled to be released from jail Jan. 5 on other charges.

A 19-year-old Winnetka man, Abdul Arian, was shot dead by LAPD officers in April after he ran a red light in Northridge and led police on a pursuit to Woodland Hills.

Police said Arian had made 911 calls saying he had a gun and threatening that officers were "going to get hurt." He then got out of his car on the 101 Freeway, pulled out something that looked like a weapon and repeatedly extended his arms. Officers shot and killed him. The object in his hands turned out to be a cellphone.

Arian's family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and police in June, saying officers shot him in the back as he ran away and fired 120 to 150 shots.

In August, Woodland Hills tennis official Lois Goodman was charged with bludgeoning her 80-year-old husband, Alan Goodman, with a coffee mug. But in late November, prosecutors said they had gotten unspecified "new information" and dropped the case.

Goodman's lawyer said detectives botched the case, releasing Alan Goodman's body to a funeral home on the advice of the coroner and not searching the couple's condo for days. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said the detectives did everything right. Officially, the case remains open.

In one of the year's most tragic accidents, two good Samaritans died as they tried to help a car accident victim.

The vehicle in the Aug. 22 crash in Valley Village hit a fire hydrant and toppled a light pole. The downed wires electrified the water, and Stacey Lee Schreiber and Irma Zamora were electrocuted as they rushed to help the driver. Six other people suffered electrical burns trying to help the women.

Hollywood

The senseless deaths linked to "The Dark Knight Rises" and "Innocence of Muslims" didn't slow the entertainment industry from barreling full speed ahead when it came to making money and consolidating power.

The biggest deal of 2012 was Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm. Adding the "Star Wars" franchise to its portfolio of subsidiaries that already included Pixar Animation and Marvel Comics, the hungry Mouse continued to swallow every pop culture landmark that matters. That Marvel investment continued to pay off spectacularly with the biggest movie of the year, "The Avengers," which enjoyed the highest opening weekend gross ($207.4 million) in history.

NBC finally climbed its way out of a long stretch in the cellar to top the major broadcast networks' key 18-49 demographic ratings list in 2012's fall season. Meanwhile, the guy who presided over NBC's worst years, Jeff Zucker, was put in charge of struggling cable news warhorse CNN.

In music, there were the ubiquitous cover versions of Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" and endless YouTube videos of folks doing Psy's "Gangnam Style" horsey dance. The latter became the first YouTube video to break 1 billion views.

At the local level, syndicated morning duo "Mark & Brian" of KLOS-FM (95.5) signed off in August after a 25-year run on L.A. radio. Mark Thompson retired to live full time in North Carolina and do some film work, while Brian Phelps left to start a new podcast.

Economy

This may be remembered as the year the Los Angeles area economy further distanced itself from the Great Recession.

That economic sinkhole began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. But it's taken nearly three years for the economy to gain momentum.

It didn't help that clerical workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach went on strike for eight days in November and December, getting back to work only after the direct intervention of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, himself a former union activist. Estimates of the strike's economic impact varied from $110 million to $540million a day.

The unemployment rate fell and a recovery seems to be taking hold in the Valley's housing market, a key component of the overall economy.

By the end of November, the unemployment rate in the city had fallen to 10.9 percent from 12.7 percent a year earlier, according to the California Employment Development Department.

The Valley's housing market looks like it has a rebound in the cards, too.

Through November there have been 5,738 home sales in the Valley market from Toluca Lake through Calabasas, according to the Southland Regional Association of Realtors. That's just under the 5,754 sales for the first 11 months of 2011. Realtors say the market is being held back by record-low inventory, which plunged to a 1.5 month supply in November.

Prices appear to be firming, with November's median resale house price increasing an annual 12.4 percent to $399,000.

Another encouraging sign is that distressed properties are on the decrease.

In October CSUN's research center reported that foreclosures had fallen 21 percent and notices of default had plunged 49 percent from their year-ago levels.

Odds and ends

Space shuttle Endeavour completed what was dubbed its 26th mission in October, traveling 2 mph through the streets of South Los Angeles and Inglewood to its permanent home at the California Science Center.

Tens of thousands of Angelenos witnessed the historic event and reveled in a celebration off Crenshaw Boulevard that featured astronauts and celebrities.

In Newhall, a group of senior citizen residents of The Willows apartment complex triggered a national outrage in December when they claimed the property management company ordered staff to take down a Christmas tree in the community room because it was a religious symbol.

But only a day after the story appeared, the tree was back up. Officials with the management company, JB Partners Group Inc., chalked it all up to a miscommunication.

This was also the year that L.A. got a little closer to seeing the return of the NFL. City officials and Anschutz Entertainment Group finally inked a deal to build a stadium downtown and the developer settled with opponents who were threatening lawsuits to block the project.

But the deal was clouded by the announcement only weeks earlier that the Anschutz Co. was putting its sports and entertainment powerhouse up for sale. The same division owns Staples Center, the L.A. Kings, and the Galaxy, among other local icons. Fans and city officials wondered if a new owner would be nearly as successful as AEG.